American at home: MLS is BACK edition

MLS was back on July 9th and the tournament has had its share of excitement for the Americans taking part. With no national team games on the horizon anytime soon and travel to Europe for USMNT manager Gregg Berhalter tricky, this could be a time where Americans in the domestic league make an impression as soccer gets back underway.

Juan Agudelo

Internacional Miami are off to a rough start in the tournament, but Swagudelo at least gave them a brief glimmer of hope in the opener. Still, these are probably the worst conditions imaginable for an expansion team to get started under.

Khiry Shelton

After being starved for minutes in New York, Shelton is getting good playing time and producing for SKC.

Ayo Akinola can’t miss

Hype. Train. (?) Akinola has 55 goals in the tournament. He opened things up when he hit this one from Nick DeLeon range and scored again against DC to notch a brace. Yep, that’s Michael Bradley celebrating, he’s healthy and playing again too.

Was that enough goals? Two? We can’t start a hype train with just two goals. We need more goals to get a hype train going if we’re going to put this kid at the top of the depth chart. Luckily he did that.

Brace for Memo

Memo Rodriguez also recorded a brace as the Houston attacking midfielder helped Houston grab a draw from LAFC.

Jeremy Ebobisse gets two

This is as nice of a finish as it is the inevitable outcome of shambolic defending. Still, Portland has been looking for a striker that can lead the line for some time. So far, Jeremy Ebobisse has shown that he can do some of the intangible things a striker has to do - create space for teammates and be a nuisance to defenders. If he can add scoring a lot to that, it would go a long way in answering what Portland can be in the tournament as Diego Valeri gets on in years.

He’d also score against the Houston Dynamo in the second group match for each team.

Mueller? Mueller? Two superlative finishes for Chris Mueller

Is Orlando maybe not a joke any more? If so Oscar Pareja should be coaching the USMNT... That’s another story. American winger Chris Mueller is getting a chance to start and he grabbed a brace against NYCFC.

An assist for Aaronson

Brenden Aaronson has had some chances to impress professionally and for the USMNT. This year the attacking midfielder might be putting together his obvious technical skill with passing vision and tireless work-rate to take his game to the next level. This is a great example of what makes him special - Aaronson carries the ball upfield dribbling with pace, picks out the right pass and executes it perfectly to set up Kacper Przybylko’s goal.

Hey, Chris Wondolowski - what makes the grass grow?

GOALS, GOALS, GOALS!

Wondo scored again against the Chicago geometric shapes also.

Something something... Wondo scoring goals in a big tournament (there, now we don’t have to see this in the comments).

Who, what? Where’s Atlanta United?

A bunch of guys you’ve never heard of and a coach nobody can identify beat the second best team in the Eastern Conference last year when FC Cincinnati took three points from Atlanta United. Ok, you might have heard of the goal scorer, he’s been in the youth setup for the national team and was the first draft pick by FCC last year - this is a great finish by Frankie Amaya to boot.

Just the reminder that Gyasi Zardes scores lots of goals

He’s got three so far in the tourney and will probably double that against Atlanta tonight.

Add high school-style facial hair to the list of things Jordan Morris excels at

Jordan Morris had a goal and an assist as the Sounders beat Vancouver 3-0 on Sunday.

Don’t worry JoMo, the beard will fill in - I’m 5 or 10 or 15 years older than you and mine grows in like leg hair but I’m sure that will change any day now.

This was mostly videos of goals, next time I promise I’ll mention a defender or two.